Mob Psycho 100 II Episode 5

Holy crap… SO MUCH HAPPENED THIS EPISODE. I am SO overwhelmed from this episode I can’t even think straight. While it felt a little rushed at times, it was still an AMAZING spectacle. Especially animation-wise. And man Mob got such good character development this episode. Sorry in advance, but this post is going to be LONG.

I was so DISTRESSED during that first part of the episode. Mob is a precious bean who doesn’t deserve to be bullied or treated as terribly as he was in that moment by Mogami’s host no less. Right away you can tell this world is the complete opposite of the real world considering the real world is more vibrant in color. While in the alternative world, the colors are dull and saturated, giving it a more hopeless and gloomy vibe, which definitely matches what is happening in the scene. Mob was harrassed and even beat up (even the freaking teacher SLAPPED him) almost everyday for SIX MONTHS in that world. Which is a stark contrast to how he was treated in the real world. While there were the occasional bullies, his classmates never poked fun at him with such malice. Sure they laughed at him when he made mistakes, but treated him like he was any less of a person. I mean, they even passed him the soccer ball (even though he missed) at PE in the first season even though they probably knew how bad he was.

Not to mention I was FURIOUS at how Asagiri used Mob’s love for milk against him. That was beyond not okay.

Another sad note to point out is the state of Mob’s room in the alternative world. Everything is scattered everywhere like he doesn’t care. While in the real world, his room is generally pretty tidy with him even folding up his bed every day. But here, it’s just messily left on the floor. He’s obviously very depressed from how he’s been treated and it just breaks my heart to see him like this.

And while I hate Mogami for putting Mob through this, some of the things he spoke of are very true. Such as how if you don’t stand up for yourself, you’ll be used and exploited by people. He also points out how fortunate Mob is to be surrounded by (mostly) good people. It’s also sad to find out that Mogami’s mother’s death was essentially his fault because he attracted evil spirits. However, despite his tragic circumstances, it doesn’t make what he did right by any means. Mogami’s actions of taking it upon himself to punish those who bring misfortune to others reminded me of Stain from My Hero Academia in a way. Especially when he used his host to lure in a bunch of self-proclaimed psychics so he could wipe them out. And MAN was that montage of what he did DARK.

Everything Mogami is telling Mob about how he should use his powers is literally the complete opposite of what Reigen has been teaching him. It just shows what Mob could have become if he had not fallen under the right tutelage. Mogami prods Mob to use his powers selfishly and not have anyone use him. Mogami is selfishly forcing his ideals and views on Mob as if desperate to get him to understand and sympathize with him. He wants Mob to adopt his views and use his powers to continue his path of “destroying the cancer” in the world. Mob was already questioning if he should start using his powers to hurt “bad people” from the previous episodes and here Mogami seemed to be nurturing that growing hatred towards people. I actually felt my heart just plummet when Mob broke out in violence against Asagiri and her squad after they beat him up.

But THANK GOODNESS FOR DIMPLE. The way that he appeared before Mob by coming out of that bully’s nose was HILARIOUS and I probably just died from laughter. Though I laughed even harder when Dimple ended up one punching Mob to snap him out of his delusions. Sometimes you do need someone to help snap you back to reality as we all probably tend to get stuck in our heads sometimes. Dimple also reminds Mob that there are others waiting and actually care about him, allowing Mob to regain his memories after Dimple’s mention of his beloved Tsubomi. And holy crap did I laugh so hard at Mob suddenly becoming buff. Even Dimple thought it was too much lol.

Dimple has turned out to be such a good boy. Even if he’s still thinking of trying to manipulate Mob from the shadows, he cared enough to risk his life to come to the alternate world and set him free from the illusion. If it weren’t for him, Mob would have given in and been reborn as a violent sympathizer of Mogami.

Despite all the cruelty Mob went through in this world, he realizes just how blessed he was to be surrounded by such supportive people. He wants to be able to give thanks to everything those people have done for him. Those six months have indeed taken a toll on Mob, but it also opened his eyes and had allowed him to see a different perspective. He realizes people can change depending on the people they interact with and that he himself was able to change because of his friends and family. And if he could change, so can everyone else and no life has no meaning. UGH MOB IS SUCH A GOOD BOY. He’s come such a long way from how he was at the beginning of season 1. I’M SO PROUD.

Mob can see the benefit of being surrounded by good people rather than being alone, the complete opposite take that Mogami wanted him to see, which frustrates him no less. The next sequence after that giant spirit eats him reminded me a lot of the spirits inside the Philosopher’s Stone in Fullmetal Alchemist. With all of them screaming in anguish and essentially trapped in Mogami. However, instead of succumbing to the anguish and rage of the spirits, Mob realizes that he has to use his powers to save the spirit of one girl in this god-forsaken world. And through that realization, Mob comes to see that he indeed has a very special gift that he’s been taking for granted all this time. Since he was focusing more on social interactions than really using his powers. He didn’t believe his powers could be any use to others, but he finally comes to terms that he can actually use them to save people. Which activates his 100% mode.

Can we just talk about how BISHONEN Mob became after his 100% mode of positive emotions??? I was not ready for it and couldn’t take it seriously for a moment. He became 100% more FABULOUS. Even Dimple was like “Who are you?”

And boy do we get one heck of a spectacle of just gorgeous animation of like six minutes straight. That is A LOT of animation. Not to mention things are constantly moving through out those six minutes so I’m sure that it was not an easy feat in the slightest. I heard the director of One Punch Man’s 12th episode (and also worked on My Hero Academia’s anime) directed and animated for this episode and man did it show. Even before the epic battle sequence, I could tell something was different with the animation in this episode. Bones really pulled out all the stops for this episode and it was AMAZING.

After Mob defeated Mogami and the evil spirits residing inside of him, I was a bit confused on what happened to him and the ??? form showing up. How did losing his vessel cause him to wake up in the real world? That was a little confusing but maybe later on it’ll shed some light on it a little more. Though it feels like there is an actual god residing inside of Mob in a sense.

Interestingly enough, Mogami is still alive and seems to be interested in what Mob will do from now on. It’s safe to say that he’ll be back (unfortunately) though who knows what he will do in the future considering former Claw Echelon Matsuo captured him before he could escape. I’m curious to see what Matsuo will do in the future since I’m all for bad guys eventually becoming to the good guys’ aid. Please let that be the case.

We are then shown that Asagiri was finally freed from her possession, having retained her memories of what happened in the alternative world. It basically shows the reason why Mogami chose her as his host because she was indeed a terrible person as the alternative world showed an accurate portrayal of who she was. She was literally a piece of crap using her father’s wealth to get friends and bodyguards who would beat up anyone she’d pick on. It’s no wonder Mogami targeted her as the one who wanted to remove filth from the world. Her initial apology felt so fake as she just kind of laughs it off. However, after a beat, she actually does start giving a genuine tearful apology, finally seeing just how awful she was. And with that, Mob’s words of people can change rang true as he was able to turn this awful, bully of a girl around. A truly powerful moment. It also provided hope from Mob’s previous experience with those stupid clients who wanted him to exorcise that innocent spirit family. That if the people around could help change Mob, he in turn could help change others instead of wiping them from existence like Mogami did.

This episode was a roller coaster of emotions and just blew all my expectations of this season out of the water. This had to be one of the best episodes Mob has put forth so far both moral-wise, character development-wise and animation-wise. This episode had everything and I cannot commend Bones and the animation team enough. It’s almost hard to believe that this is only the beginning of the season as there is still so much more coming up if the opening has anything to say. I feel like that Psycho Helmet cult is about to come into play in this upcoming arc since it was brought to attention at the end of the episode. I watched this episode with my coworker on our break and both of us were like: “Oh… Oh no… NO DON’T FUND THEM THAT’S NOT A GOOD USE OF YOUR MONEY STOP!”

I’m definitely excited to see where Mob’s development takes him considering he now has a goal to protect both people and spirits and hopefully help change people little by little. I BELIEVE IN YOU MOB!